Primary links

May 2015

Guide "Gazprom" downgraded gas production in 2015. More recently, the company planned to produce this year more than 485 billion cubic meters. m. However, this forecast has been lowered to 450 billion cubic meters. m. This target is still higher than last year. Reducing forecast says about the problems with the sale - including in Europe and Ukraine. Increase in future gas exports company hopes with the new export pipeline to Turkey under the Black Sea.

Strategic Europe continues its series devoted to explaining the foreign and security policy ambitions of the 28 EU member states. We have asked our contributors from each capital to give a candid assessment of their country’s perception of security and strategy, with a ranking on a scale from 0 (the laggards) to 5 (the ambitious). This week, the spotlight is on Estonia.

Europe is starting to play hardball with Russia on energy — and the Kremlin is fighting back. For years, the European Union was highly dependent on Russia’s natural gas and was unable to exert any influence on its supplier since it is the world’s largest energy importer. This spring, the European Commission launched an EU Energy Union to finally bind the 28 countries into a single energy market.

During the two-day Military Committee meeting, the 28 Allied Chiefs of Defence exchanged views on the current and future security challenges facing the Alliance, and provided clear and decisive military advice to North Atlantic Council ahead of the NATO Defence Ministers meeting next month.

Germany's development minister has renewed calls for a quota on the distribution of refugees in the EU. While a Brussels scheme has met with little acceptance, Italy's prime minister has a radical plan to save migrants.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid a formal visit to Iran on April 7, 2015. The trip was designed to try to repair bilateral relations after their severe breakdown linked to the crisis in Yemen. Indeed, the conservative wing of the ruling establishment in Tehran, including the head of Iran’s Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Huseyn Nakavi, demanded that Erdogan’s Iran visit should be delayed (BBC–Turkish service, April 7). Some even warned the government that if Erdogan did not cancel the visit, the issue would be brought before Iran’s Guardian Council. Despite this negative pressure, the Turkish president did end up traveling to Tehran to clarify Ankara’s position (Radikal, April 7).

Russia is tilting toward China in the face of political and economic pressure from the United States and Europe. This does not presage a new Sino-Russian bloc, but the epoch of post-communist Russia’s integration with the West is over.

The policy is intertwined with religion, imposing their vision of the world order of the last, cultural integration processes become irrelevant without public understanding and initiatives of politicians.

As the crisis in Macedonia deepens, the two largest European political families - the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) and the Party of European Socialists (PES) - have added fuel to fire by stirring up antagonism between their parties.

The the Norwegian delegation headed by the Managing Director of the Rogaland Export Promotion Agency, Chairman of the Board of the Norwegian Drilling Academy «Nortrain» Are Selstad visited the Republic of Kazakhstan.

James Appathurai, NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia, tells AzerNews about NATO-Azerbaijan cooperation amid the country's growing role as an energy supplier to Europe.